Sophos, a global leader in network and endpoint security, announced that it has acquired Rook Security, a pioneer and leader in managed detection and response (MDR) services. Rook Security provides a 24/7 team of cyberthreat hunters and incident response experts who monitor, hunt for, analyze and respond to security incidents for businesses of all sizes. The privately-owned company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind.

Sophos is creating re-sellable MDR services by combining Rook Security’s threat detection, investigation and response capabilities with its recently acquired DarkBytes technology platform. As a channel-first, channel-best security provider, Sophos will deliver the new MDR services through its network of approximately 47,000 channel partners worldwide. “Cybercriminals are relentlessly trying to exploit organizations with techniques ranging from tried-and-true phishing emails to the more recent trend of ‘hacker pen-testing’ to find weaknesses in their surface area. As a result, businesses need 24/7 monitoring and management of what is happening on their network, yet many of them do not have the expertise, can’t keep up or don’t have the security teams in-house to optimally configure and manage security around-the-clock,” said Joe Levy, chief technology officer at Sophos. “With MDR, Sophos’ channel partners will be able to provide businesses of all sizes with expert services that continuously detect, hunt for and respond to security incidents.”

In addition, Sophos plans to align its synchronized security technology and product portfolio with Rook Security’s 24/7 services for MDR customers. Rook Security experts will also be able to review these customer security postures to ensure optimal policy configurations for Sophos products across estates.